Graboid
The graboid is a species of sandworm, similar to the Mongolian death worm, a worm-like cryptid that purportedly attacks animals, and possibly humans. As Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young explain, the "destruction of 'graboids', as they are quickly dubbed, becomes the central tension of the town".[1] Store owner Walter Chang named them. According to UGO.com, "graboids are to the desert what sharks are to the ocean".[2] Physiology Graboids are subterranean animals, superficially resembling gigantic worms or grubs, with long, serpentine bodies. When fully grown, a graboid will measure up to 30 feet (9.1 m) long, and 6 feet (1.8 m) across at their widest point, and weigh 10-20 tons. Graboids completely lack eyes; they do not need them, due to living underground. Their heads consist of a massive, black, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging. The beak opens up like a grotesque flower; it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandibles on either side. Whether they possess a skeleton or not is unknown, though a scientific document hypothesizes they have a semi-rigid internal structure, similar to the internal cuttlebone of cuttlefish. Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least 10 feet (3.0 m). Each of these tentacles (which have been loosely compared to functioning like the creature's tongue) terminates in a toothed mouth of its own. It is unclear if they actually bite off and swallow food on their own, or if they are simply used for getting a better grip on prey so it can be dragged into the gullet. Normally kept retracted in the graboid's throat, these tentacles were initially mistaken for the actual creatures, causing people to underestimate their underground opponents. The graboid's common name is derived from these prehensile tentacles, which "grab" prey and suck it back down the graboid's hungry gullet. At times, these tentacles appear to have minds of their own, hissing and writhing like snakes. Food is typically swallowed whole, though they are known to dismember and decapitate their prey. A graboid's hide is thick and leathery, with a rough, pebbly texture, giving them a reptilian appearance (though they are not reptiles). This makes them very hard to kill with anything short of saturation bombing or large-bore rounds. Graboids possess immense physical strength, able to topple over mobile homes, tow along an object heavy as a pickup truck without slowing down, smash through brick walls and pull an entire station wagon underground. Encircling their bodies are short spikes, which all move in unison to push the graboid through the dirt, similar to the setae on an earthworm. They are able to burrow faster than a human can run; a graboid was able to keep pace with Burt's truck. With armored head and mobile spikes working together in unison, a graboid can "swim" through the loose soil at high speed like a shark in the water, though they are incapable of tunneling through solid rock. Graboids (and their imago forms, the shrieker and ass-blaster) have distinctive orange blood. Graboids also have a powerful stench, which is made evident on occasion. Behavior Graboids are ravenous carnivores, always on the hunt for food. Indiscriminate eaters, their diet includes sheep, cattle, horses, donkeys, coyotes, and humans. They are known to be cannibalistic when the opportunity presents itself. Lacking eyes or a nose, they hunt by sensing seismic vibrations which are produced by sounds and movements (such as walking). Because they are unable to tell the difference between edible and inedible vibration sources they adopt a policy of "eat first, ask questions later", swallowing whatever sets off their vibration sensors and regurgitating anything that is inedible. Inedible objects can be spat out with considerable force, being propelled high into the air. Due to the sensitive hearing they use for underground navigation, graboids are so sensitive to sound they must retreat from loud explosions, which cause them great pain. Graboids are ambush predators, preferring to sneak up on their quarry, though they are shown to chase it down with great determination. They erupt from the ground and use their tentacles to ensnare prey, pulling them into their mouth (sometimes only the tentacles break the surface). The tentacles wrap around the prey, biting into its flesh or hooking the prey with their horn-like spikes. When prey attempts to flee by climbing (for instance onto the roof of a house or car), graboids will dig away the earth under the hiding place, undermining it until it collapses or sinks low enough to allow the graboid to pluck off the prey. When they are unable to break down the prey's hiding spot, the undaunted graboids will continue circling it, like sharks at sea, until it ceases making vibrations. Usually they wait so long the prey dies of dehydration or starvation, i.e. several days. Graboids are depicted as highly intelligent, possessing memory and the ability to learn. For instance, after one graboid is successfully killed by having it swallow homemade dynamite, a second graboid can notice this trap and simply regurgitate the dynamite. They have also been known to dig traps for their prey. Shrieker *The second stage of the graboid life cycle. *Unlike their previous incarnations, the huge, subterranean and limbless graboids, shriekers live on the surface. Much smaller than graboids, shriekers are about 5 feet (1,50 m) long and 4 feet (1,20 m) tall. While graboids are worm-like in shape, shriekers slightly resemble dinosaurs or heavy ground-dwelling birds, having stout, three-toed legs and a compact body. They also have a short, stump-like tail. This tail, as well as some small bulges in the neck, has some orange coloring on it. Its function is not mentioned. *The one thing that shows shriekers are related to graboids is their skull- just like a graboid's, it consists of a powerful, beak-like armored upper jaw and a much narrower lower jaw surrounded by two mandibles. Both the jaws and the mandibles have sharp hooks and serrations to hold on to prey. The beak is very powerful; shriekers are capable of ripping through sheet metal with ease. While graboids have three prehensile tentacles for tongues, complete with jaws, shriekers have more normal tongues: singular ones lacking jaws. Like a graboid's, the tongue is relatively stiff (for a tongue). It can be stretched out approximately 3 feet (90 cm) and has some short bristles on it, not unlike the tongue of a cat. *The shriekers' most notable feature is their heat sensor, a brain-like pulsating organ atop their head which is usually covered by a frill-like flap of skin, which is supported by a small ridge at the base of the skull. Using this sensor, shriekers sense infrared heat, which is their only sense other than taste and touch as they lack eyes, ears or a nose. The heat sensed by the shriekers is apparently processed into an image highly similar to that of an infrared camera. *Shriekers are much easier to kill than graboids, being smaller, surface-dwelling and more easily damaged by firearms, although they hunt in groups. Like graboids, shriekers have orange blood. 'Hunting and intelligence' *Unlike the solitary graboids, shriekers are pack hunters, using their numbers to bring down large prey. Graboids appear to spawn 3 Shriekers per worm. However, Burt discovered that one graboid can spawn 6 from itself. It is likely that the exact number varies, somewhat like the number of pups in a dog's litter. Shriekers are able to hunt in packs. By eating sufficient foods of any kind and getting enough to eat, they have the ability to multiply. The creatures are hermaphrodites, being able to double a number every few minutes. Six Shriekers are able to spawn an entire herd in under 12 hours. Sensing heat, they let out loud screams (earning their name). While the sound is useless (as they are deaf) they produce a lot of heat when screaming, alerting each other to the presence of prey. Another thing unexplained is the shriekers' ability to "see" heat before raising the frill covering their heat sensor; they always seem to know when to raise it. It is theorized that they can see some heat through the frills. Raising them merely enables them to make full use of the obviously delicate sensory organ, similar to opening one's eyes widely. *When hunting shriekers show some good feats of insight and cooperation, using each other to form natural ladders to reach prey hiding on high ground such as rooftops. *Graboids, hunting by vibrations, often attack inedible objects, and the heat-seeking shriekers are no different. They have been observed attempting to eat warm car engines, electronic cables and steamed clothes. *Shriekers also feed on cold objects which they find by dragging their tongue over the ground. They have been observed eating military rations, and could possibly also feed on plants, which would make them omnivores. Ass-blaster It is the third and final stage of the life-cycle including the graboid and shrieker. It is named by Jodi Chang, the niece of Walter Chang, who named the original graboids. 'Physiology' *Also like shriekers, ass-blasters have bird-like legs ending in three-toed feet, and their feet have three slender black talons. The ass-blasters' most striking features are their wings – they have red/pink-colored sail-like structures at the back of their bodies, consisting of a semi-translucent skin supported by rigid stems. A third dorsal sail extends from the spine down the back and tail. Ass-blasters use these wings to glide through the air. In order to take off, they produce an explosion from their rear ends, earning them their name. This is achieved by mixing two chemicals near their colon (by shaking their hind quarters). Creature Designers Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis borrowed this design from the real life Bombardier Beetle. The mix explodes upon exposure to air, launching the creature into the air. The ass-blaster also learns at an extreme rate and can easily comprehend how to use its natural means of transportation as a torch, such as when one attempted to melt through a fire door. Ass-blasters have been known to spontaneously combust when accidentally poked with sharp flaming objects. *Like the other life cycle stages, ass-blasters have orange blood. 'Hunting and intelligence' *Ass-blasters hunt like birds of prey, scanning the ground for prey while gliding on hot air currents. Their heat sensors are much wider than shriekers', allowing them to view large sections of land at the same time. An ass-blaster's heat vision is much more detailed than a shrieker's. Like the other creatures, ass-blasters are also attracted to inedible heat sources such as fires. *Unlike their previous form Shriekers, an ass-blaster will slip into a coma after eating, instead of multiplying. *Like the other life cycle stages, ass-blasters are intelligent, capable of learning from their mistakes, quickly learning to dodge these projectiles. Life cycle *Graboids are hatched from eggs laid by ass-blasters (the final stage in the life cycle). These eggs split open diagonally. Carbon dating has shown that the eggs can lay dormant for at least 300 years, explaining why graboid sightings are rare and random. The hatching of the eggs is prompted by warmth - hatched eggs have been found in a hot spring. *Baby graboids (nicknamed Dirt-Dragons, and by the fan-base, Shooters) are 4 feet (1.2 m) long and are much shorter and compact in comparison to the adults, but already have the typical set of jaws and mandibles. The baby graboids also have a row of armored scales on their backs for protection, which are shed before they fully mature. *Like adults, they have large spikes used for digging; extra large rows of spikes sprout from the sides of their body. Being smaller than the adults, baby graboids are able to hurl themselves out of the dirt to tackle prey, like "some kind of demonic trout", according to Hiram Gummer. Their tentacles are underdeveloped at this point in their lifecycle. *Upon maturing, graboids will resume attacking and consuming prey. After that, they will seek a secluded spot where they will metamorphose. Three to six shriekers will emerge from their body where they have been growing in large sacs, killing the graboid. The exact number of shriekers that emerge could possibly depend on how well-fed the graboid is. *Upon emerging, shriekers will search for food. When having eaten a sufficient amount of food, shriekers will spit out a cocoon containing a mini version of themselves. This ability to reproduce asexually allows them to greatly expand their numbers over a short period of time, although it is unknown whether a shrieker can produce more than one clone. The newborn shrieker is fully developed, about 10 inches (25 cm) long and starts growing right after birth. *When a shrieker is around 12 hours old, it will undergo a moulting process, turning into an ass-blaster. Ass-blasters can live up to several years (an individual sold to Siegfried and Roy was still alive two years later). They attack anything warm. While shriekers reproduce asexually when they have fed enough, ass-blasters, slip into a coma when they eat a large amount of food. They can reproduce, however – each ass-blaster carries a graboid egg in its gut. Because they cover large distances when flying, they can carry these eggs further away, as theorized by Jodi Chang. Origins *The graboid's evolutionary origins are vague; though some have attempted to guess where they came from- outer space, nuclear mutations, genetic engineering and prehistory were all offered up as possible explanations. *The answer was revealed when a fossil graboid spike was discovered and dated back to the Precambrian, making it at least 600 million years old- the graboids are apparently from earth, or have at least existed on earth for a very long time. Strangely, no prey large enough for graboids to eat had evolved yet at the time; in fact there was no life on the land at all, and most of the land was composed of bare rocks. Later evidence found the fossil was incorrectly dated and actually from the Devonian period. By that time, prey big enough for graboids to eat had evolved (amphibians), though they don't rule out a possible extraterrestrial origin. *Whether the subimago Shrieker and imago Ass-blaster always hunted using infrared or whether this is a more recent adaptation is unknown, although in either the Precambrian or Devonian periods there would've been a complete lack of warm-blooded prey. *It is unknown if the imago and subimago forms were always part of the graboid life-cycle or if they are the result of becoming reproductively bound with another species, but the distinctly vertebrate-like appearance of the subimago and imago stages and apparently invertebrate nature of the larval stages would seem rather difficult to explain otherwise, save perhaps as being basal pre-vertebrate chordates whose metamorphosis loosely resembles their evolutionary history, much like the larval stages of amphibians resemble fish. See also *Mongolian death worm *Sandworm (Dune) Category:Monsters Category:Mythical Creatures Category:Creatures Category:Enemies Category:Cryptids